Intentional Encouragement

     Today is extremely hot in southeastern Virginia.  The heat index places the "feels like" temperature in triple digits.  I'm glad for an air-conditioned office.  Yesterday was pretty hot too, and we spent several hours of it at an amusement park.  We got a drink as soon as we arrived and by the time we went back home, I was wishing I had more.  The longer we went without quenching our thirst; the worse it got.      We have had an unusually large amount of rain lately.  It has kept our lawn green and our plants and bushes happy.  Usually by July, things are starting to look pretty parched around here and it only gets worse as the summer wears on.  The longer we go without adequate water; the more "thirsty" the ground gets.      Psalm 63:1 addresses this same concept, but from a spiritual perspective.   “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”      A couple

     We've just celebrated Independence Day.  I am always grateful to remember the founding of our nation and the price that was paid to secure our freedoms.  I like the fact that, at least for a day or two, we stop arguing about what the future of our nation will (or should) be, but we focus on the reality that we live in a free country.  I'm proud to be an American, and I'm grateful to live in the land of the free and the home of the brave.      As I've reflected on our freedom (which was paid for at great cost), I have remembered the true freedom that I have because of my relationship to God through Jesus.  A few thoughts come to mind from Romans 6:20-22 .      The analogy is made there between our former slavery to sin and our new-found freedom in Christ.  But it is interesting to me that Paul doesn't describe the change in our lives once we trust Christ as freedom to do and be whatever we please, but as freedom from sin so that we can be slaves to God.      We